Description
This medium-sized mammal has a body of similar length to a large tree squirrel but is more heavily built and can weigh as much as a rabbit. It is considerably larger than the hedgehog species found in tropical and sub-tropical areas. Head-and-body length can range from 20 to 30 cm (7.9 to 12 in), with a vestigal tail adding only 1.5–3 cm (0.59–1.2 in). The adult weight typically ranges from 400 g (0.88 lb), after hibernation, to 1,200 g (2.6 lb), just prior to hibernation. The maximum recorded weight is 2,000 g (4.4 lb), though few specimens exceed 1,600 g (3.5 lb) even in fall. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, this species is probably the largest species of hedgehog and is possibly the heaviest member of the Erinaceomorpha order, although the similarly-weighted moonrat can attain a considerably greater length. Males tend to be slightly larger than females. The animal appears brownish with most of its body covered by up to 6,000 brown and white spines. In most of its range it is unlike any other creature. However, where it co-exists with the southern white-breasted hedgehog, the two species are difficult to distinguish in the field, the latter having a white spot on its chest.
Read more about this topic: European Hedgehog
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“As they are not seen on their way down the streams, it is thought by fishermen that they never return, but waste away and die, clinging to rocks and stumps of trees for an indefinite period; a tragic feature in the scenery of the river bottoms worthy to be remembered with Shakespeare’s description of the sea-floor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The great object in life is Sensation—to feel that we exist, even though in pain; it is this “craving void” which drives us to gaming, to battle, to travel, to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principal attraction is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Do not require a description of the countries towards which you sail. The description does not describe them to you, and to- morrow you arrive there, and know them by inhabiting them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)